Let’s get right into the interview with John Buttery of the Pilot Chemical Company to find more about Pilot’s successful use of the training products from Convergence Training.

What can you tell us about Pilot Chemical and about yourself, John?

John Buttery (Pilot Chemical): Pilot Chemical Company is a privately owned and independent global specialty chemical company providing high quality products and services to the disinfecting, sanitizing and cleaning; metalworking and lubricants; oil field and emulsion polymerization industries.

I have been with Pilot for 26 years. Over those years I’ve held the position of plant process technician for 4 years, production supervisor for 14 years, and for the last 8 years I have been developing Pilot’s training programs.

What products did you get from Convergence Training?

How did you choose Convergence Training instead of another provider?

John Buttery (Pilot Chemical): We were looking for an LMS that was designed for manufacturing companies. After trialing many systems we decided Convergence meet our current and future needs.

Can you tell us a few successes you were able to experience by using the Convergence Training products at Pilot Chemical?

John Buttery (Pilot Chemical): Before Convergence we were trying to manage our training using spreadsheets for 200+ employees. Identifying gaps in employee skills and required regulatory training compliance was difficult due to inefficiencies and lack of transparency. In short, managing Pilot’s training needs had become too complex for our existing systems.

The Convergence LMS gave us the ability to manage our training. Now after 3 years and 300+ employees we are delivering training not only for compliance but job-specific training as well, and our new hire onboarding is completely paperless and much more efficient.

Before Convergence we were trying to manage our training using spreadsheets for 200+ employees. Identifying gaps in employee skills and required regulatory training compliance was difficult due to inefficiencies and lack of transparency…In short, managing Pilot’s training needs had become too complex for our existing systems.

John Buttery

Can you tell us more about those successes?

John Buttery (Pilot Chemical): One benefit is that all of our learning activities are now housed in a single, central location and are delivered electronically. Course content, scheduling, and training records administration is now managed over an Internet-based interface. That’s been big for us, because it means that training completion has become transparent–to the employee, to supervisors, and to auditors. In fact, our training statistics are posted monthly for all sites on our SharePoint home page, so it is transparent to everyone!

Another benefit is that we’ve now got more training content available than ever before. The Convergence LMS allows us to create and deliver our own training content, including documents, training events, classroom instruction, quizzes, and surveys. Just in the past six months, our 300 employees have completed 472 qualifications, which in total included 10,029 activities.

In addition, we now find very few training compliance issues during our audits and training has become part of our culture.

We now find very few training compliance issues during our audits and training has become part of our culture.

John Buttery

Anything else you’d like to mention about your experience with Convergence Training?

John Buttery (Pilot Chemical): For the last 3+ years Convergence has been a great partner for our training management needs and we look forward to working with them in the future!

Convergence has been a great partner for our training management needs and we look forward to working with them in the future!

John Buttery

What are your future plans at work (with the products from Convergence Training)?

John Buttery (Pilot Chemical): We are looking at adding mobile applications to enhance our equipment training at the manufacturing sites.

Conclusion: Thanks and “Huzzah” to Pilot Chemical and All Their Employees

Another big thanks to John and to Pilot Chemical, both for taking the time to share their experiences and plans with us and for choosing us as partners in the development of their manufacturing training program. We’d also like to tip our hat to Pilot Chemical, to John, and to all their employees for placing so much value and putting so much work into their workforce learning and development efforts. Job well done!

Finally, we wish John and everyone at Pilot success and want them to know we’re ready to help at all stages of their continued development.

Manufacturing Training from Scratch: A Guide

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Jeffrey Dalto is an Instructional Designer and the Senior Learning & Development Specialist at Convergence Training. He's worked in training/learning & development for 20 years, in safety and safety training for more than 10, is an OSHA Authorized Outreach Trainer for General Industry OSHA 10 and 30, has completed a General Industry Safety and Health Specialist Certificate from the University of Washington/Pacific Northwest OSHA Education Center, and is a member of the committee creating the upcoming ANSI Z490.2 national standard on online environmental, health, and safety training.